The Resume / CV is an indispensible tool for job seekers. The aim of the document is to provide employers with a concise snapshot of a candidate’s skills, allowing them to make a judgement on whether it is worthwhile to progress to an interview. To state the obvious “the best CVs generate most interviews”.
So where did the Resume come from and how did it all begin?
1482: Leonardo da Vinci includes his list of skills in a letter seeking employment to the Duke of Milan, in what could be the first resume (No one really knows for sure).
1900: Resumes begin to appear as separate documents from letters seeking jobs. Guides to business correspondence instruct job seekers to include just the facts, and leave personality to the cover letter.
1926: The word Resume is first used to mean “a written summary of biographical information” in an ad in Lincoln, Nebraska, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
1966: Xerox introduces the Magnafax Telecopier, the first widely-available modern fax machine, and resumes start traveling over telephone lines.
1994: On the 4th May Jobserve launches the first job board.
2013: Philippe Dubost, a French web product manager, builds an online resume in the style of an Amazon product page. It helps get him a job at Birchbox.
2015: Suzie Finch becomes a professional CV Designer launching The Career Improvement Club which makes high quality Resume Designs available to everyone.